Final DOOM

So...none of the old Doom games run on windows 8 without zdoom installed..

But that's not the official original game? I was about to get them and if I ran into a problem I would download zdoom. But, is it true that the file isn't really the real game? So buying them makes it pointless...I just have to buy them for the file to use their code? That sounds like a waste of money.

There is a very good selection of Doom Source Ports for all platforms. This includes Windows 8.

For best compatability with modern systems, I would recommend one that renders through OpenGL or an abastraction library (such as SDL).

The stock Doom levels will all run on most modern computers in power save mode, but you might want a little faster than that, if you have an 120p monitor or ultra-high-res setup. You will also need the faster modes if you want to use community developed levels, which can be very processor intensive.

If you want the real classic vanilla experience, you can download DOSBox and the old DOS binaries. Obviously the classic dos binaries can be downloaded from id Software, and DOSBox can be gotten at either the DOSBox project website, or any of the major download sites for Freeware and/or Open Source Software.

Also, if you want to play on your Andriod phone, there are several source ports, or you can just fetch aDOSBox. (I recommend paying for the full version, as the developer behind the port is a good guy and works real hard to keep the port up to date.)

I recommend avoiding DosBox and using the wad for the Doom games from Steam, using them on Zdoom and Zdaemon since means you can play them on modern pc's and includes the multiplayer that Steam version missed out on.

Zdoom and Zdaemon are very outdated compared to these newer ports, and most of these ports run faster on any hardware, even rather outdated hardware (anything with hardware accelerated 3D graphics of any type, even very outdated cards like the S3 Virge or low-speed integrated graphics chips like the Intel G45. I am talking about computers that you couldn't even run any modern desktop OS on.)

With a bit of modification you can get this game to run great in win 8, WITH dosbox. What I had to do was download the newest version of dosbox from the official website (the one that comes with final doom is outdated) and replace the old exe with the new one in the games files. Then I had to go to the dosbox 0.74 options and paste them into all of the config files, while retaining the autolaunch parameters at the bottom. If this didn't help enough there are plenty of guides on steam to help you with this more.

ronnie42, there is a way to set up DosBox to run classic multiplayer. It's just a little more work.

Lookup the network settings on the DosBox Wiki. (For modem multiplayer you need to create a virtual modem socket over another protocol, not too difficult if you know how. Easier on Linux and Mac than on Windows, though.)

Using one of the internet capable ports is a better option for multiplayer. I recommend the open source ones, namely because they have a larger community maintaining them.

Each port has advantages and disadvantages. Some try to be more loyal to the orriginal binary in how the game runs while others provide enchanced graphics or more options.

If you want a balanced port that has near 100% replicated physics behavior, loyally recreated but slightly enchanced graphics, as well as anti-cheat and server/client multiplayer, I recommend Odamex. If you want something with greatly improved graphics, I recommend Vavoom.

Also, if you are looking for a set of freely usable assets for Doom multiplayer levels as well as some standard levels, I recommend looking at the FreeDOOM multiplayer project. The FreeDOOM assets are also great if you feel like writing a Doom total conversion mod as well.

+1 for Zandronum ..very active community and development (Vavoom hasn't seen development since 2011), not only supports most of the mods out there, it also works very nice for online matches (it's actually the successor for Skulltag, which was basically designed around multiplayer).